Shadows of a Flame
by Myths n' Wraiths
Summary: Nathan Essan learns first hand what confronting evil can cost, and the price of victory is more than he can bear. Chapter Six is in, don't read this one if your having a bad day. R
1. Chapter 1

Shadows of a Flame

Chapter One

In its prime, before the Rikti invasion, Paragon City was a jewel of its country, a bustling and prosperous metropolis of unbridled potential. Places like Perez Park were teaming with the lives and events of the cities populous; while areas like Atlas Park were rich in history and esprit, untainted by the clutch of organized crime and gangs. The morning sun once rose over the waters of Telos Islands undimmed by the war walls that now dominate the horizon of each of the cities zones and the children of the great city were free to grow up without fear of oppression and struggle. Though the city once enjoyed such freedom from fear and the domination of men with evil purpose it was not because evil was not presence.

Heroes were not as common a site in the streets of Paragon City, prior to their unification during the Rikti crisis, but those that were there were no less needed and no less vigilant.

Nathan Essans, known to most as Victor, was one such hero. He was a mutant who had dedicated most of his life to stemming the growing gang threats in Kings Row, an area of the city that he had decided to make his home over a decade ago.

Victor had grown up in a secluded part of the mid-West where, like the majority of the rest of the world, mutants were treated harshly at best. Even his own parents had regarded him with a barely tolerable disdain since he first discovered his unusual abilities at the age of fifteen. The next three years of Victor's life were an uphill struggle against prejudice and intolerance. Everything from his education to his very survival was a battle for him; so when Victor graduated from high school he was more than ready to put as many miles between himself and the place of his birth as was possible.

Following a documentary that he had seen on TV about how mutants were aiding elite police units in Paragon City, Victor made for the metropolis and the prospect of a more accepted existence.

Paragon was not free of prejudice by any degree but despite the obstacles in his path it did not take long for the dedicated young mutant to make his dreams come true. He found his place on one of the special task forces dedicated to undermining gang operations, where his incredible abilities to manipulate energy and wreath himself in a defensive aura of fire earned him the reputation as the best point man on the force, when it came to hostile incursion.

Affection and commitment were quick to follow in Victor's new life. After six months on the police force he met the renowned Elizabeth Parlos, a powerful mutant mentalist that the police often employed as a special units coordinator. To most people she was known as Sage and to Victor she was quite simply the most captivating woman he had ever seen in his life. Though Victor would testify for the rest of his life that he was still at a loss as to how he was ever able to win the heart of such a beautiful woman, the fact that he did indeed do it was apparent to all because barely a year later the two were married and had a pair of twin boys on the way.

Victor had pledged the rest of his life to ensuring that his sons would not live with the same fear and uncertainty that he had endured in his earlier years. It was a pledge that he upheld every day and today was no difference.

Victor fumbled to throw an extra scoop of relish on the hot dog he had just bought from a local street vendor as he glanced inconspicuously around, taking in every aspect of his surroundings while giving of the impression of noticing nothing at all.

"Here's your change buddy." The vendor said with a broad smile as he handed a few coins over. "Enjoy."

"Thanks man." Victor replied as he took the change, dropped it, fumbled with his massive fingers to pick it up again and looked up at the vendor with a sheepish grin. "It's these fingers," He said with a chuckle. "Their bigger than your hot dogs and they aint good for a freakin' thing."

The vendor got a good laugh at the massive mutant's expense and waved good day as Victor strolled away, swallowing his hot dog with two bites. He moved down the street with an overemphasized waddle in his stride and took a seat on a bus stop bench that was situated on relatively quite corner of the otherwise bustling neighborhood.

"Big V, you have got to tell me, why a klutz?" Victor heard the voice of his technical assistant, Danny Cole, crackle through the minute speaker that was concealed in his ear. "Why do you always act like a klutz on stakeouts?"

"Its simple," Victor spoke lowly into his collar as he shrugged his massive shoulders. "The goal of any field man is to not be noticed until its time to move. Well that is kind of hard for someone who is 6'10" and 318lbs, so I go for the next best thing. I let everyone notice me and then pass me off as just another big fumbling giant. For some reason no one suspects a man who can't walk across the street without tripping over the curb as being a cop."

"Interesting," Danny said with a chuckle. "I thought you just got nervous."

Now it was Victors turn to laugh. "Not likely man." He responded, amused at the younger agents assumption.

"Kill the chatter gentlemen." Saundra Chase's voice cut in. "Our target has just left the apartment and is on his way to your location Big V." The mood of both men instantly shifted to a staid professionalism.

"That's a good copy Boss," Victor said as he casually shifted his position on the bench to have a clear view down the street. Saundra was a cop's cop who had made a name for herself as a narcotics detective in her early days on the force, and was one of the only people in the force that Victor respected enough to call "Boss". Her talent for understanding the processes of a criminal mind and staying one step ahead of them was what gave her the edge she needed to be the first female who was given her own task force. She had put together an elite team whose sole mission was to eliminate the growing threat of a gang uprising in Kings Row, a team that Victor was proud to be a part of. For over three years they had kept gang related crimes at a record low for the city.

A drastic increase in petty crime over the past two months however, had changed all of that and the popular opinion that the local gangs had, for reasons unknown, begun recruiting members more aggressively began to gain ground in the minds of the local law enforcement. Saundra and her team had been given the task of finding the cause of the sudden outbreak and for the past two weeks they had stuck to the shadows, working their connections and informants and stalking people with known gang relations.

No one had to dig very deep before they discovered that one of the older gangs, the Blood Hounds, was aspiring to become a major power in King Row after a recent change in management. A lower level gang member, which had gotten arrested for assault, had snapped under interrogation and spilt the news about the previous Blood Hound leader's disappearance and how the new leader was reorganizing the whole gang into branches that could operate in different areas of Kings Row independently of each other.

While the minion could not shed any light on the identity of the new boss or the reasons for the sudden organization he did give up the name of his branch leader. Now it was just a matter of Saundra and her team working their way up the food chain. They had tracked the name given to them by the incarcerated minion to an address on the south side of Kings Row. After five days of surveillance they had gathered enough information to get a warrant for the suspect's house and a local pharmaceutical warehouse where it appeared he was running most of his operations out of.

"The target just turned the corner at Richard St. and George Ave. He is all yours Big V." Saundra said in the same commanding yet comfortable tone that Victor had grown accustomed to.

"I see him." Victor replied as he made a show of struggling to pull the wrapper off a stick of gum. "He just crossed the street and is cutting into the alley behind the pharmaceutical warehouse."

"Ok people this is it. We move as soon as Big V confirms the target enters the warehouse." Saundra responded as her voice grew more excited. Victor felt her excitement affect him instantly, like an icy wave of exhilaration rolling through him. It was not a nervous or uncertain excitement, it was that age old, barely controllable, thrill of the hunt and it was burning in the heart of every cop on the team in that instant.

It took every ounce of Victor's discipline to maintain his nonchalant appearance as he watched the target move cautiously down the back alley and slip inside a secluded door at the back end of the warehouse.

The piece of gum fell forgotten from Victor's hand. "He's inside." he said in a cold passive tone that he held despite his enthusiasm.

Saundra's voice was electric as it responded across the police wire. "We are a go. All teams move in!"


	2. Chapter 2

Shadow of a Flame

Chapter Two

Victor threw off his baseball cap, revealing an unkempt main of brick red hair, and cast away his concealing jacket, displaying himself for the mountain of a mutant he was. All around him police officers were bursting out of cars and vans, charging for the warehouse with their assault rifles and stun rods at the ready.

In one effortless leap Victor cleared the hundred yards that lay between him and the warehouse and collided with the back door with all the force of a SCUD missile. The wooden entry shattered like glass under his blow and he charged into the cluttered chasm of a building.

Instantly Victor scoped the entire room, picking out just over a dozen mobs scattered amongst the many shelves, tables, boxes and containers that crowded every corner of the massive building and there in the middle of it all was the target. The file that had been compiled on this particular Blood Hound boss showed that the man had accrued quite a few aliases over the years but currently he was known as Capillary.

"This is the Paragon City Police." Victor yelled in his deep booming voice. All around him the heads of over a dozen panicking gang members snapped up in his direction. "We have a warrant to search and detain everyone on the premise. You have the right…" Victor never got the chance to finish his statement because suddenly there was at least one weapon for every Blood Hounds member present, and they were all pointed at Victor. _…to get the living crap beat out of you. _Victor thought to himself as he let his considerable powers loose and veiled his body in a layer of blazing energy.

"Take him down!" Victor heard Capillary's voice shout out to the gang and in one united response a hail of gun fire was sent flying in his direction.

Despite his considerable resistance to pain and injury Victor had no intention of allowing himself to be a sitting target for these common thugs. Thinking fast and moving even faster, Victor picked a minion toward the center of the room and cleared the distance to his target in one effortless leap. Now in a location that would both draw the attention of the gang away from the other police officers that were streaming into the building and in a position that the mobs would be less likely to use their guns on him for fear of hitting each other, Victor brought his full strength to bear on the criminals. One powerful blow from Victor's energy enveloped hand and a minion collapsed unconscious at his feet.

A quick glance toward the entrance showed Victor that the police teams had already entered the building and were fanning out quickly to surround the gang members and apprehend them. Wanting to subdue the mobs and end the confrontation before his fellow officers got involved, Victor picked Capillary out of the gang and squared off against the much smaller villain, hoping that if he could subdue their leader the rest of the gang would follow suit.

Before he could close the distance between himself and his quarry however, another of the lower level minions slipped in close enough to Victor to bring a wooden bat down across his jaw with enough force to splinter the weapon into pieces. The minion's attack did little more than to distract the giant mutant, who responded in like manner by throwing a hook that caught the minion in his side and sent him flying across the room to a crash into a pile of boxes almost twenty feet away.

Once again Victor turned his attention to the Blood Hounds leader, who was desperately trying to organize his minions against their attacker. The mutant waded through the small horde that separated him and his target, allowing the flames that where radiating from his body to force the minions out of his way. A few of Capillary's more loyal subordinates stood fast, attempting to guard their hierarch from the oncoming assault. Victor swept them aside as easily as if he were pushing open a curtain and placed himself menacingly in front of the Blood Hound boss.

Victor could pick out a look of fear a mile away. As a mutant people had been afraid of him for as long as he could remember, whether he gave them reason to or not; but the level of terror that the gang leader was displaying caught Victor off guard. He knew from years on the police force that these gang bosses did not get where they were by shrinking from a fight so when the Capillary turned to run from Victor's presence in terror the powerful mutant was as much surprised as he was amused.

"How did you find me you damn monster? Get away from me!" Capillary shouted when he discerned Victor's face through the crimson flames that enveloped the mutant's presence. As Capillary turned to flee from his assailant a blazing fist snatched him up by the front of his jacket and yanked him into Victor's other fist, which incidentally was heading in the opposite direction of Capillary's face. The old physics law about how two objects not being able to occupy the same space at the same time proved true once again and Capillary was knocked out cold.

Sudden shouts of, "Police, freeze!" and, "Drop your weapons and get down on the ground!" were sounding off all around the warehouse, now that the rest of the police force had moved close enough to engage the mobs. The various Blood Hound minions capitulated in turn, having seen the fate of their leader.

Within a matter of moments the police officers had cuffed all the gang members and were ushering them out of the building. Victor stood menacingly in the middle of the vast room, watching over the minions as they were escorted out of the building. Despite the fact that he had ceased exuding the flow of energy that gave birth to the flames that guarded him, his presence alone was enough to discourage any further acts of resistance from the apprehended thugs.

No sooner had the last thug been hauled out of the warehouse than Saundra and the rest of her team filed in. Saundra spotted Victor immediately and started picking her way toward him, her slender and elegant form sliding gingerly through the mess of crushed boxes and toppled shelves. Showing her usual efficiency as a leader she started passing instructions to the detectives that followed her, sending the half a dozen men in different directions to begin the long and tedious process of sifting through the entire warehouse and labeling everything that might be used as evidence against the newly reformed gang. A grin of excitement spread across her lips as she approached the stern faced mutant.

"You did it again." She said as she slapped Victor on his chest, the percussion of which closely resembled that of smacking marble. "Eighteen heavily armed suspects apprehended and not a single police injury."

"All in a days work Boss." Victor replied as his brutal persona softened to a casual demeanor. "How long do you think it will take to get this place sorted out and cleaned up?" He said, changing the subject. While Victor was far from timid, he was also not a glory hound. He liked to hear his boss say, "Job well done," as much as the next guy but having grown up as a mutant he had learned long ago to avoid too much attention, whether it be good or bad.

It had taken Saundra time to get used to Victor's sense of self-denial when it came to getting praise for his work but over the years she had grown accustomed to his unusual methods. "Depends on how much of this stuff in here is actual contraband and how much of it is legitimate supplies. I have the crew giving the place a quick look over to see if there is anything we can find that might help the DA get the judge to deny the gang members bail. Judging by how ready they were to defend this place I am guessing there has got to be something pretty valuable to them mixed in with all this mess."

"Hey Saundra," One of the detectives shouted across the room. "We got something here." Victor glanced in the direction the voice had come from to see a couple of the detectives digging excitedly through a set of filing cabinets.

"Ask and ye shall receive." Victor quoted to his superior with a slight grin forming on his lips. Saundra shot him a quick smile than nodded her head in the direction of the filing cabinets as if to ask Victor to come along. "Nah," He responded. "You go ahead. I am going to take a look around outside. A bust like this is sure to draw some attention." Victor knew that news of this arrest would travel quickly and that some of the less intelligent local low-lifes would let their curiosity overwhelm their natural tendency to avoid police and come to see for themselves what had happened. Picking out overly curious gang members from among the naturally inquisitive populous could give an officer some insight as to which gangs were operating in the immediate area and in what strength.

"Alright Big V. Danny picked up your jacket and hat for you. He's probably got them over in the van if you want to get them." Saundra said as she strolled away.

Victor began making his way to the buildings exit as he reflected on his recent actions. Every aspect of the operation began playing back through his mind and he carefully dissected each moment, as he prepared himself for the arduous task of filing the necessary paperwork that came with an arrest of this size. Over all Victor was satisfied with the entire operation. It had been done quickly, professionally and without any casualties and that was really all that he was concerned with. He left the nagging questions like, "What did the gangs business in this warehouse consist of?" and, "What was their major goal?" up to the team of detectives that Saundra always had tailing her; all that concerned him was that every one went home safe… except for the bad guys.

One thing did nag at the back of Victor's thoughts though. The way that Capillary acted when he saw him, it was as if the gang leader knew him from somewhere in his not so distant past. Victor supposed that it was possible they had had a run in recently; he was after all responsible for well over a hundred gang related arrests. Still it was not like him to forget something of that nature especially since he had looked heavily into Capillary's history before the operation began.

Victor was about to pass the whole thing off as nothing more than an unusual coincidence when Saundra's voice pulled him away from his personal thoughts and back to his present. "Victor, get over here quick!" Victor had spent many years working with Saundra and the tone in which she called to him was one he only heard on the rarest and worst of occasions. It was not an order that she spoke to him but a plea, a call filled with both confusion and fear.

Moving on an instinctive reaction Victor spun around and leapt across the cluttered warehouse to land next to Saundra. The police inspector had a shocked and confused look on her face as she handed Victor a manila folder packed full of papers.

"These guys have a file an inch thick on you Victor. Your address, your history, your family, your abilities, it's all in there." Saundra spoke in a concerned hushed tone. "Some of those files are even police records. Things that no one but myself and the district director have access to."

"That's impossible." Victor responded incredulously but when he opened the file to see exact duplicates of his original police testing and records the sickening realization of just how possible it was began to sink in.

"That's not all. There are blueprints of almost every major building in Kings Row in these file cabinets and some papers referring to an Operation Blood Drive but it's all in code.

Suddenly Victor's face went blank as a sickening feeling of dread sunk into his stomach and an overwhelming sense of desperation flooded his mind. He heard a call for help echo in his thoughts and he knew instantly that something was horribly wrong.

"It's my wife. I have to go." The shell shocked mutant said bluntly as he turned to leave.

"What's wrong Victor? Where are you going?" Saundra shouted after the retreating mutant, who had already cleared the distance between her and the exit.

"Sage is in trouble." Victor responded just before his large frame disappeared through the door to the warehouse.


	3. Chapter 3

Shadows of a Flame

Chapter Three

In Victors mind rang out a plea and a cry unlike anything that could be described. Across a great distance the pain and the sorrow of another person was being shouted into his very soul and he knew without a doubt that the pain and sorrow were his wife's. He had felt her use her ability to manipulate and broadcast emotions before, but never in this way; it was like a beacon, a guiding light that drew him in a direction that he quickly realized, with a note of dread, led to his home.

Victor struggled to stave off a wave of panic as he exited the warehouse and in one incredible leap cleared over two city blocks. Hundreds of nightmares flashed threw his mind as he leapt from one building top to another. Doubts and confusion flooded his thoughts. So deep was he in his own fears that when the building he had just jumped clear of bloomed into a massive fiery explosion he almost leapt away without noticing.

Saundra raced out of the warehouse just in time to see Victor clear a building top two blocks away. Without missing a beat she ran over to a van about a dozen yards away that was sporting a soft drink advertisement on the side and tore open the back door. Inside the rather inconspicuous van a decidedly conspicuous young man sat surrounded by computers and communications equipment.

"Danny!" Saundra yelled as she gingerly climbed into the van. Her dramatic entrance nearly startled the young technician out of his chair. "Give me your head set I need to speak with Victor."

"I thought Victor was inside with you, what is going on?" Danny said in surprise. He quickly removed his hands free communications set and passed it to Saundra, fearing that if he let her get within grasping reach she would snatch it off his head anyway.

"I don't know," Saundra replied curtly as she held the set up to her ears and spoke quickly into the set. "Bid V, Big V, come in." Static was the only reply that she received.

"Wow, He still has his com piece and tracking node but he is already out of signal range and heading north east at an awesome rate of speed." Danny said pointing to a tracking screen that showed a flashing red dot moving across a topographical view of the city. "Saundra what's going on?"

Saundra glared at the tracking screen for almost a full minute before turning her attention back to Danny. "I want you to call Victor's home and see if you get an answer. If you can't get through send a squad by to…" Before Saundra could finish passing out her orders the van was rocked by a sudden and powerful shockwave followed a second later by the deafening boom of a massive explosion. Computer consoles toppled off their shelves all around Saundra and Danny and crashed at their feet.

"What the f…" Danny began to scream franticly.

"Danny shut up and get in touch with dispatch." Saundra snapped, instantly organizing her thoughts and directing her subordinate. "Get a report from them on where that explosion took place." She ordered the young and shaken technician as she turned to jump out of the van.

"Uhm... boss I can't get in touch with dispatch." Danny said picking up a console and pointing at the blank screen dejectedly.

"Why? It doesn't look broken." Saundra replied eyeing the equipment and the technician dubiously.

"It's not." Danny said with a confused shrug. "I just don't have a signal. The phone line must be down."

"But our coms don't run off of land lines. For us to lose the signal the satellite receivers at the phone center would have to be…" Saundra's voice trailed off as a rescent memory of something she had seen on the blueprints that they had found inside the warehouse returned to her. "Danny, get on the radio and direct all available personnel in the immediate area to the Paragon Pell phone center on Richards St. Police, Emergency Medical and Fire Department, everyone needs to move to that location immediately; that's where the explosion took place."

"Woe, did you guys hear that explosion?" A patrol officer said as he stuck his head in the back of the van. Saundra rolled her eyes.

"Yes! Now do me a favor and run inside and find detective Peterson. He has a bunch of blueprints that we found in the warehouse." Saundra directed the patrol officer. "I need the addresses for the buildings on all of those blueprints and hurry."

"Yes Mam," The patrol officer said as he ran off to accomplish his task.

"Danny, as soon as we get those addresses I want you to send a squad to each of those locations to check them out. Use our own people if you can't get in touch with dispatch."

"Saundra?" Danny pleaded.

"What." She responded coolly.

"What the heck is going on?"

"Someone just cut this neighborhood's communications off at the knees and I have the crazy suspicion that the phone company is not the only building they are going to hit."

"Oh boy this sucks." Danny muttered.

Victor leapt from what was left of the second story of the decimated phone company building and landed lightly on the pavement, holding an unconscious body in each of his arms. The explosion had taken place on one of the higher levels of the building where there was more equipment than people; still the destruction was devastating. The building had once towered ten stories high, now all that was left of the fifth through tenth floors were the metal and concrete skeletal remains of what was once the buildings infrastructure and there was not a single window left intact on the entire block.

Having taken a good look through what was left of the building Victor was confident that the remaining floors were stable enough to allow the people that were still on them to find there own way out. It was hardly in keeping with his character to leave people that were in need unaided but the anxiety that was coursing through his mind could not be ignored. Once he had laid the unconscious victims in a safe place on the street corner, where he was confidant that rescue workers would find them quickly, Victor took off toward his home once again.

A hollow pit of dread formed in Victor's stomach as his imagination began to run rampant. In the ten years he had known his wife he had never felt her use her powers to call him in such a way, to attack his very emotions. Dreadful scenarios began to run through his mind; everything from his wife being assaulted to their apartment being attacked, and still none of these ideas seemed to match the desperation that was resonating in his mind and heart.

Victor made it to his home in record time as he pushed his body to the limit, crossing four city blocks with each tremendous hurdle. He caught sight of his apartment building on the pinnacle of one of his leaps and guessing the distance perfectly bounded across another two city blocks to land on the balcony outside his home. He noticed instantly as he approached the front door had been busted in and rage mingled instantly with his dread.

"Sage!" Victor yelled as he barged through the entrance and into the living room, ready for anything, only to find his wife kneeling on the floor with her face buried in her hands, sobbing. Victor rushed over to her and caught her up in his arms, quickly checking from her neck length sandy brown hair to her slender feet for injury and breathing a sigh of relief when he saw none.

Sage grabbed her husband in vise like grip as he pulled her close to him and placed her mouth next to his ears. When she spoke through her tears her voice was a hoarse whisper and her tone was seething with rage and dread. "They're gone Nathan, our boys are gone." Victor felt his very soul fall out of him as she continued. "They took our boys!"


	4. Chapter 4

Shadows of a Flame

by Myths n' Wraiths

Chapter Four

"I don't get it Saundra, if they were trying to cut off our communications why would they blow up the phone company? The long range radios in the cruisers can still reach dispatch. It seems like a lot of work just to cut out our cell phones." Charlie Baker, the director of the SWAT team, spoke in a gravelly voice, after Saundra had briefed him and the rest of the detectives on what she believed was going on. He was an older man who had the look and moves of a seasoned warrior. He possessed a mind of tactics and maneuvers but when it came to investigations he graciously and wisely left things to the younger sharper minds.

"Because, while we may be able to talk with each other we have still been blinded to what's going on the city. Without the land lines and the cell phones the residents of Kings Row can't call in to report any disturbances and that allows the gangs to move freely around the city without us knowing it." Saundra replied in a quick professional tone to the older veteran. "We took these addresses off of some blue prints that we found inside the warehouse. These are all major businesses or public service buildings. I believe that the Blood Hounds are going to try and either take over or take out these buildings next and if they do we are going to be looking at wide spread chaos and rioting. Our goal is to get to each of these places and secure them against any possible assault." Saundra spoke hurriedly as she handed a torn strip of paper with an address scribbled on it to each of the detectives. "Now everyone grab some back up and beet feat over to these locations. I want an initial situation report sent out Danny, our tech support, and status reports every half hour."

The detectives practically broke into a run as they split up and began calling any and every officer within earshot to follow them on their mission. "You're with me Charlie." Saundra said as she popped the trunk to a nearby patrol car and exposed a veritable arsenal. From its contents she pulled a pistol belt, laden with two hand guns and half a dozen other devices and utilities and slung it around her waist, quickly adjusting it to fit her slender hips. Next she retrieved an assault rifle that would have made Rambo drool with desire and locked a magazine into its well. Last but not least she stripped off her button down blouse, still modestly covered by a form fitting undershirt, and replaced it with a set of Individual Ballistic Armor. "Our target is a bank two blocks over, we can reach it by foot in less than five minutes if we move quickly."

Charlie smiled in admiration as he watched Saundra transform from a clinically, analytical investigator to a decked out soldier, ready for the harshest combat. _She might not have the experience but she definitely has the guts. _He thought to himself wryly.

"I'll have my guys stock up on first aid kits and ammo; if you're right then we are probably going to need plenty of both." Charlie said as he began checking his own weapon and inventorying the supply of ammo and equipment that he had strapped to his body in a dozen different pouches and pockets. "Give me two minutes with my boys and we'll be ready for anything." The old veteran said and then turned to go speak to his team.

Despite her desperate feeling of urgency, Saundra did not begrudge Charlie his two minutes. He had seen enough action to last a man two lifetimes during his career as an officer and when he said he would be ready for anything Saundra knew he was not exaggerating.

Two minutes later, almost to the second, Charlie and a dozen of his SWAT members were assembled and ready to move. Their faces were as cheerful as a death squad's and they had all the equipment to match.

Charlie's SWAT team took the back alleys of Paragon in order to cut down on travel time and draw less attention as they made their way to the First City Bank building. Saundra urged them on at just less than an all out sprint and she noticed with a degree of disappointment that their pace was taking more of a toll on her than it was the disciplined shooters that she was now traveling with. She had always prided herself on staying in excellent physical shape and under regular circumstances could have made the run across two city blocks without even breaking a sweat. At the moment however, between her weapons pistol belt and body armor, she had almost fifty pounds of equipment strapped to her. To the 200lbs men around her the fifty pounds of gear seemed at best a slight annoyance but on her 118lbs frame the extra fifty pounds was a draining burden.

Still Saundra kept increasing her pace as they approached their destination. She had no hard evidence to prove that the explosion at the phone company was not an isolated incident or that the Blood Hounds would be hitting this bank but every ounce of her intuition told her that this was far bigger than a disgruntled telephone customer expressing his displeasure. All of her fears gained credit when, just as her team arrived at the rear of the bank, an eruption of automatic gun fire could be heard emanating from the inside its heavy brick walls.

"Damn," Charlie said as he brought his team to a halt near the back entrance of the bank.

"Why are we stopping Charlie? We have to get in there and get these guys before they cause any more trouble." Saundra spoke sharply but in a hushed tone despite the fact there was no danger of anyone hearing her besides the old SWAT officer and his team.

"Because, unless today is some kind of national holiday that I don't know about there is going to be people inside that building and they all just became hostages. We run in there with guns blazing and some innocent people are going…" Charlie did not have a chance to finish his statement before a mob a terrified people cam bursting out of the front door of the bank, scattering in every direction and running as if their very lives depended on it. "Well that's odd." The seasoned officer said in an almost comically confused tone. "Why would they let all of their hostages run away?"

Saundra pondered this turn of events briefly before speaking triumphantly. "Because with the phone lines down they know that no one can report the robbery. And they think that we are all going to be over at the Phone center bomb site. My guess is they figured that the hostages would slow them down."

"Well what ever the reason they just made our job a whole lot easier." Charlie said as he pulled a large folded piece of paper out of his pocket and motioned for his team to gather around him. Saundra recognized the paper instantly as one of the blueprints that they had found inside the warehouse.

_When he said he would be ready for anything, he meant it. _Saundra thought to herself as Charlie began to lay out a plan to retake the bank.

"Sage," Victor pleaded as he cradled his wife's face in his hands. "I need you to calm down. I need you to try and tell me who took our boys." To his surprise the face that he was looking at was no longer filled with fear. In an instant it Sage's demeanor had changed so drastically that Victor barely recognized his wife. Her face was twisted with rage, her eyes ablaze with psychic energy and her body trembling with adrenaline. She griped Victor's shoulders so hard that her nails broke on his tough skin.

"I- don't know." Her voice quaked with anger as she spoke. "But I know where they took them." With that she released Victor's shoulders and placed her hands on his temples.

In one gut wrenching instant Victor could see the world through his wife's mind. Horrible visions of monstrous figures bursting into their home flooded over him. Victor felt a helpless fear run through him as he saw the monsters rushing forward with their massive arms outstretched and reaching for him. It was the kind of fear he had not felt since he was a child and it was then that he realized that these were his sons' memories; these were his sons' fears. The visions were as brief as they were terrible but in their absence he could se a draw in the mental noise around him. Even though his children's fears had been cut short somehow they had been so profound and had traumatized their minds so much that even in their unconscious state their thoughts left a psychic wake. A path that could be seen and followed as easily as one follows a river.

Then, as quickly as it all had appeared to him, the visions vanished and Victor was staring at his wife once again. Sage's face was one that Victor had seen many times before but never on her. It was a face devoid of mercy or hesitation; it was the face of a killer.

"God help whoever took them." She said through clenched teeth and with that she was on her feet and out the door.

"All teams enter on my mark." Charlie's voice came impassively across the radio. To Saundra, as she stood motionless outside the front door of the bank, seconds seemed to ticked by as slowly as days; she took long slow breaths to still her nerves and gripped her assault rifle until her knuckles turned white, so that it would not slip in her sweaty grip. She stood at the rear of a column of six other SWAT officers. The front man was armed with a large Kevlar shield and a hand gun but everyone behind him was carrying more fire power than an entire World War I platoon.

Saundra had been through the drills for this type of quick entry before. The front man would breach the door and toss in a Flash Bang, a non-lethal grenade that would stun anyone inside the main lobby of the bank, and then barge in and provide physical cover for the rest of his team. The rest of the SWAT officers would follow the "shield" in and engage any mobs in their designated line of fire with as much force as was necessary to subdue them… at least that was how it was supposed to work. Saundra was no soldier but she had enough experience to know that when the bullets start to fly the best laid plans crumble and the harshest training is nothing but an afterthought.

"GO!" Charlie snapped, yanking Saundra away from thoughts and throwing her into action. It was if that one simple word held the power to accelerate time itself; before she knew what had happened the sudden 'POP' of the Flash Bang detonating inside the lobby hit her ears and Saundra has swept forward and through the front door of the bank. She was instantly disoriented when the gunfire that erupted inside the lobby echoed off of the marble walls and gave the impression that the shots were coming from every direction at once. Panic gripped at her heart and it took every ounce of her discipline to focus and acquire enemy targets through the fog of confusion and fear that was filling her sight and mind.

There was no lack of targets inside the large and elegantly decorated lobby of the First City Bank. Over a dozen Blood Hound gang members were scattered around the room, all of the clasping at their eyes in agony, an obvious sign that the Flash-Bang had done its job. Many of them however were spraying automatic fire blindly around the room in a panic, which only served to draw fire from their own comrades who also in a blind panic mistook the allies' shots as that of their attackers.

Saundra found herself shouting orders to "get down" and "drop your weapons" in unison with the SWAT members around her as she made her way toward the center of the room. Swallowing her emotions and reservations she raised her weapon and let loose a quick burst on a gang member before he was able to blindly rake her and her team with gun fire; the man crumpled under the automatic fire and his weapon fell silent in his lifeless hand. The rest of her team followed her example quickly taking out any of the gang member foolish enough to fire their weapons.

A few brief and bloody seconds later the room fell relatively quite as all of the Blood Hound's that were foolish enough to fire their weapons were either cut down by the gunfire of their own gang members or that of Saundra's devastatingly accurate SWAT team. Those gang members who had had the presence of mind to take cover during the brutal fire fight now began to stumble to their feet as the affects of the Flash-Bang wore off and their blurred vision began to clear.

Saundra noticed one such man only a few yards away and letting out a challenging yell charged the dazed thug. She dove into the man, driving the butt off her weapon into his stomach with all the weight and force of her body behind it. The man doubled over, writhing in pain as he was thrown back down to the ground. Saundra mercilessly kicked the man over on to his aching stomach and forcing his hands behind his back, slammed a pair of cuffs around his wrists.

By the time Saundra was done securing the disabled thug and looked around for any other targets, the rest of her team had already subdued the remaining mobs that were scattered around the lobby. With a sigh of relief Saundra keyed her radio. "Lobby clear." Her voice was quacking with adrenaline as she spoke.

The response she got back from Charlie was as steady and casual as ever. Offices and Vault clear." The fact that he could remain so calm when faced with traumas that obviously unsettled her almost made Saundra feel embarrassed. The feeling did not last long though. With a quick glance around the room she counted fourteen villains that her and her team had subdued or eliminated and she knew that she had nothing to be embarrassed about.

The depths of Paragon's sewer system spreads out below the surface of the great city like an intricate organ, massive tunnels and pipes span the breadth of the city many times over and reach nearly a quarter mile deep. Through the years it has grown along with the city, with newer more efficient systems and passages put down over the older ones that have fallen into disrepair.

Not unlike our own bodies, when an organ is no longer used it begins to decay and becomes a breeding house for diseases and filth. For years the most rejected of Paragon have found their refuge in the old sewer lines, where they can operate in their own evil ways beneath the view and care of the populous.

There in the sewers, where a set of massive tunnels led into a cavernous room, stood a man with a fine dark suit and trimmed appearance who looked completely out of place amid the reek of aged filth. He had a large build and despite his sharp dress his face was so hard and impassive that even if he had been neck deep in waste it did not look as if it would faze him anymore than it did to be standing next to it.

Scattered around the large room, wandering aimlessly about, were a dozen grotesque forms in the shape of men, though on the surface they looked more like human quilts. All there pieces and parts were sewn together in what seemed a haphazard way and in many cases, where the seams of there limbs were connected, organs protruded and dangled out. I quick glance at anyone of them would show that despite the masses of muscle that were fused all over their bodies the creatures had little control of their internal workings. Body fluids seeped from every one of their any unnatural orifices. They were in every way disgusting.

Still not all of the other people, if you could call them people, in the room looked quite so undead. A pail withered figure of a man dressed in a blood stained medical robe entered the cavern from one of the many connecting passages followed by a slim figure, wrapped in black tattered clothes from head to toe and his face covered by a respirator mask.

"Are the children ready?" The well dressed man asked without turning to look at the two that were approaching him. His voice was a slow deep growl that seemed to echo quietly off the walls despite the fact that he spoke in a stilled tone.

"It will be a few moments until the preparations are complete Bloodlust. The operation you have requested requires a great deal of time..." The spindly man in the doctor's garb said in shallow voice before he was cut off.

"Then why are you here and not finishing your preparations doctor?" Bloodlust interjected and his dark eyes flashed red as he shot a glance at the frailer man. The doctor could not tell whether his client, Bloodlust, was particularly angry with him or not considering that he had seen no other form of emotion displayed by the man since their transactions had begun nearly a month ago. Despite the uneasy feeling he got whenever he was in the dark mans presence the doctor was not prone to intimidation.

"I have some doubt as to whether you will be able to live up to your end of the bargain. I have begun to receive reports that your gang's efforts to riot the city are as yet unsuccessful. The police have somehow managed to intercept or delay all of your mobs before they could complete their assignments. On top of that there are rumors that someone has entered the sewers and has taken out some of my minions near the Kings Row entrance. The terms of our agreement were very clear Bloodlust and..."

"Do not worry good doctor. I have far more resources at my disposal than one simple neighborhood gang. If all the Blood Hounds did was give the police in Kings Row a bad day then they did more than their worth. As for the intruder in the tunnels I am confident that it is unrelated. If your lieutenant followed his instructions then there is no way that the children could have been traced here." With those words Bloodlust turned his gaze on the thin figure in dark rags that had followed the Doctor in. "Did you administer the sedative as I instructed Patient 4?"

Patient 4's body tensed visibly as he stepped forward to speak. "There was no need for any sedative. Both the children were knocked unconscious when we apprehended them. They left no sign to follow and gave us no trouble."

A sudden pressure filled the air and though Bloodlust's facial expression did not falter from its constant passive aggressive state it was apparent to the Doctor that his lieutenant had made a grievous error. "The sedative my simple fool," Bloodlust began to speak with a voice so pervasive that it seemed to emanate from within your ears. "was not so that the children would be easier to manage. If I had thought that you would have trouble with that then I would have sent a babysitter along with you. Its purpose was to reduce their mental activity so that their mother would not be able to follow their mental wake." Bloodlust fixed Patient 4 with a long withering stair and as he did so his eyes faded from a deep brown to an almost radiant red.

"My good Doctor it would seem that your lieutenant has managed to lead one of the most powerful psychics in the world right to your door step, not to mention her husband."

"And whatever police backup they may have mustered." The Doctor interjected in an irate tone as he turned to his lieutenant. "Patient 4 if you value what life you have left you had better gather as many minions as possible and head to the Kings Row entrance." By now the Doctor's normally pale complexion had brightened to a disturbing shade of red and he had put himself directly in Patient 4's cloaked face. "I will not have my operation interrupted by these two mutants."

Patient 4 did not wait to be given any further mercy or judgment. Spinning on his heals he ran off towards one of the larger sewer tunnels, calling to the undead figures in the room as he went. The zombie like forms that had been meandering aimlessly around all started at Patient 4's call and filled with a sudden urgency began to follow him with all the speed and grace of an elephant that has three broken legs.

"This is a most unfortunate turn of events." The doctor mused as his face slowly returned to its unnatural deathly color. "I shall have to redouble my efforts to ensure that the operation is done quickly."

"There will be no operation," Bloodlust countered. "until I have dealt with the parents."

"You?" The doctor asked looking at Bloodlust in confusion.

"Make no mistake my good doctor, you have just sent Patient 4 to his death. Believe when I say it is so because if I were not certain of it I would have killed him myself for his ineptitude. Even without any police back up, which I seriously doubt they have, the children's parents will be more than a match for your minions." As Bloodlust spoke he stared penetratingly down the tunnel that Patient 4 had just left through as if he could search its depths and everything it contained just by seeing its entrance.

"I know this Victor person has quite a reputation as a warrior but if you think that he can stand up to all of my forces than you underestimate me Bloodlust." The doctor said as he shot Bloodlust a prideful glare.

"It is not Victor that will be the ruin of your lieutenant doctor. It is his wife."

"His wife?" The doctor said doubtingly. "She is a psychiatrist and field coordinator. She has no combat experience in her records."

"She will before this day is done." Bloodlust replied coldly.


	5. Chapter 5

Shadows of a Flame

by Myths n' Wraiths

Chapter Five

With Sage in the lead, the two desperate parents made their way to an access tunnel that served as an entrance to Paragon's sewer network. The entrance was covered with large, rusted, bar grate and Victor quickly noticed that it looked as if it had been forced open recently. There were scratch marks on the bars and the rust had been broken off around the edges of the grate.

Victor ripped the bar grate from the entrance with a single hand and tossed it away before braving the darkness and stench that permeated the air of Paragon's Sewers. Sage floated after him without a moment's hesitation, her telekinetic powers burning around her like a glowing gown that flowed in an unfelt wind. She had not opened her eyes since she and her husband had left their apartment or spoken a word. She was not blind or mute however; she saw the world through her husband's eyes and felt the thoughts of every creature around her. She spoke to her husband constantly, feeding him directions and impressing on his mind a constant need for haste and a looming sense of confrontation.

The sewers were anything but welcoming, Victor discovered when he landed knee deep in sewage water, but above the usual repulsive nature of the his surroundings he also felt a growing sense of apprehension coming form Sage. Along with the premonition Victor could hear the sound of heavy feet shuffling through thick water coming from deeper in the pipeline.

Sage had sensed the faint thoughts of less-than-living creatures in the pipes ahead. Their minds were simple yet twisted, weak yet determined; they were faint echoes of baser desires and irrational thought. She struggled to grasp them in her will for a moment. The simplicity of their thoughts made it hard for Sage to take hold of the minds of these strange creatures but easy to manipulate once she had.

A sudden burst of anger flared up in her as she realized that these were the same type of creatures that had taken her boys. These were the monsters that she had seen in the horrible nightmares that her sons had had before they were taken from their home. Reaching out with her mind she solidified her hold on the faint remnants of conscious that the monsters still possessed and once she grasped them she beckoned them to come closer.

Out of the shadows a group of three despicable looking creatures came shuffling forward. Their bodies where a hodgepodge of various parts that were stitched together in a seemingly haphazard way. Vomit leaked from their mouths and puss oozed from their seems. To Victor's eyes they were begging to be put out of their misery and he instantly became a blazing inferno as he prepared to leap on the monsters. Just as readied himself to spring however; his wife stopped him with a thought.

_No, _She spoke into his mind as she unintentionally imposed her will over his. _I just wanted to see what we were hunting with my own eyes. _With that she opened her eyes for the first time since she had left the apartment and fixed her gaze and the full weight of her mental powers on the monsters. The sudden psychic assault snuffed out the mental activity of the creatures like candles in a hurricane. Victor watched as the creatures convulsed then suddenly went limp, falling on their knees in the filth of the sewers and toppling over. The weight of what he had just seen slowly sunk into Victor's mind. His wife had, with a mere thought, turned those creatures into vegetables right before his eyes. But at what cost to herself, he wondered.

Victor pushed the concerns out of his mind, deciding this was no time to be timid, and at Sage's urging he moved on into the darkness of the sewers, following the unseen mental trail that led to his boys.

In only a matter of minutes Victor was completely lost and blindly following the directions his wife was feeding him as he passed from pipe to pipe. The maze of tunnels seemed impossibly complex and on more than one occasion he was positive that they had gone in a complete circle and were about to end up back where they had started just to round one more corner and see that they had passed into a completely new network of pipes. He pressed on at a quick and steady pace that would have quickly left Sage far behind were she not skimming along the surface of the water, barely touching the foul liquid with the tip of her shoe as she kept herself aloft with her telekinetic abilities.

Victor could feel the strength of her barely contained psychic powers washing over the back of his mind. The presence she was exuding was so predatory and intense that if Victor had not known it was his wife behind him he would have swore that he was being followed by every nightmarish creature he had ever imagined. Then a chilling thought flashed through his mind; perhaps that was what was following him.

A sudden mental warning pulled Victor from his thoughts and brought his senses to bear on the sound of feet shuffling through the water in the pipeline ahead. This time however; it was not the noise of a few wandering creatures, it sounded more like a small army moving in their direction.

"How many?" Victor asked in a whisper, even though words were useless to his wife at this point.

_Not enough. _She spoke into his mind. _But on the life of our children, don't hold back. _ And with that she reached into Victor's mind and found his morals, convictions, good judgment and everything that made him the dedicated and principled person he was. _We can not afford these things now._

"I don't understand." Victor said as he felt Sage touching everything that he thought made him a good person and separated him from the people he locked up on a daily basis.

_What stands between us and our children is too terrible to be beaten if you have your morals restraining you. _Sage said as she reached out with her thoughts and connected her husbands mind with one of the creatures that was moving down the tunnel toward them. Victor gasped and grabbed his head as his thoughts were linked with the monster's. The thoughts that echoed in his mind were completely given over to pain and hunger, completely void of any sense of righteousness that even the basest humans had. It was despicable, deplorable and a desecration of life that wanted to drag every other form of life down to its level.

"Do what it takes." Victor said when Sage had severed the mental link between his mind and the creature's. He shook his head as if it would help remove the horrible memories of the connection and then a thought came to him and he asked, "You have already done it to yourself?"

_Yes. _She said simply. Victor looked up at his wife and it dawned on him that something was missing from her face. An aspect of her was gone and it both made her less than what she had been and yet so much more and for a moment he forgot about his boys; he forgot about the army of monsters moving closer; he forgot about the world.

Victor reached up and gently touched his wife's face. "I don't want to lose you Sage." He said softly.

Sage's eyes shot open at his touch and she stared into his gaze. The weight of her mental focus sent Victor's mind reeling for a brief moment and he had to struggle to regain his thoughts. Then, quite suddenly, her focus softened and a faint smile passed over her lips. _You won't my love. I can return us to what we were._

"Then do it." With his approval Sage reached out and touched Victor's temple with one hand. He felt her moving through his mind with the precision of a scalpel and the strength of a broadsword and when he was finally able to stumble away from her touch he felt a horrible hollowness in his mind where his decency once had been. All his emotions were still intact and still as vivid as ever but he no longer needed reasons, as he once had. All he needed was desire.

Victor looked up at his wife and he knew he still loved her just as much as ever he had but it was a love without principle. It no longer mattered whether she loved him back; she was his and he would have her whether she wanted him or not. He looked down the tunnel towards the sound of the oncoming monster and he knew that they were pure evil but it no longer mattered that they were evil; he would kill them just because he hated them, because they had given him reason to hate them. He would kill them all... very soon.

As the rumor of the creatures approach grew and the shadows in the tunnel began to shift with their movement Victor sat down in the filthy sewage and after taking a deep breath sunk beneath the surface of the waste. Behind him Sage began to slip backward, the glow of her telekinetic power dimming as she sunk into the shadows.

In a matter of seconds a mass of monsters hade waded forward from the shadows and approached the place where Victor sat hidden beneath the waters surface. They fumbled around each other as they moved in a disorganized pack and added their filth to the already foul sewer water.

"Stop!" Patient 4 shouted to his horde and as one the zombies obeyed so quickly that they all nearly toppled over as the came to an abrupt halt. "I could have sworn I saw them." The darkly wrapped figure mumbled to himself as he pushed his way to the front of the crowd. He stood still for a moment as his eyes scanned the darkness of the pipes and pondered. _Perhaps we missed them. _He thought. _They might have heard us coming and doubled back; if they took a different pipeline they might be able to get around us. _

"We are falling back." He ordered his mob. "Go back that way!" He reiterated, pointing back down the tunnel, after his first command was met with blank and uncertain stares. _Yes, they will try and get around us but we will be waiting for them. _He thought to himself as the army of Zombies slowly and gracelessly attempted to turn around. Patient 4 would die believing that those had been his own thoughts. He would go to his grave without suspecting that his own mind had been used as a weapon against him, a tool used to confuse his own minions. Patient 4 would die now.

Victor's body rose slowly and silently from the murk behind the spindly leader of the creatures. His head was lowered, his eyes were closed, his mind was vacant and his limbs were limp. Then, in one terrific instant, he turned that foul tunnel into a literal Hell. His body erupted into an inferno so intense that Patient 4's body was nearly incinerated in the blast. The water around Victor was instantly vaporized into a scalding steam that washed over the backs of the monsters ahead of him. Their decaying skin was seared by the burning vapor and a horrible scream of pain erupted in chorus from their throats and echoed so loudly down the tunnels that the walls shook.

With his initial burst of energy spent Victor hurled himself into the back of the mob like a flaming god of destruction. He had no reservations about ripping their bodies apart at their mismatched seems before they even had a chance to turn and face him.

Behind him Sage flew in and her very presence invoked a panic in the dozens of monsters she faced. Their minds knew only anger, hunger and hate but she taught them fear and confusion. She did not bother focusing on their minds one at a time but let her telekinesis burst out from her slamming their massive bodies into the metal walls of the pipeline.

Together the two mutants unleashed a destruction that shook the world around them. Victor had waded deeper into the throng of flailing zombies, allowing them to throw themselves on his flames from every direction. With one hand he crushed the skull of one zombie while he used the other one to yank the arm off another zombie and beat him with his own limb. The stench of burnt flesh filled his nostrils and the pain of dozens of blows registered all over his body as the monsters pounded away at him but he did not falter, did not back away. He ate the pain, knowing that every zombie that dared to come close enough to attack him would perish in his flames.

Victor spun around and with one powerful blow broke the neck of a monster that had just decked him in the back. "Come on!" He yelled as he jumped on another creature and boxed its ears so hard that its skull collapsed. Then he took a sudden blow to the face and was knocked onto his back in the water. Instantly a dozen hands grabbed him, pinning him down and a dozen fists began to pummel him. "Come on!" He yelled again and his flames burst out searing the hands and arms that dared attack him.

Once his flames had pressed back his attackers Victor was back on his feet and pressing his assault. He had worked his way to the front of the mob by now and there he held his ground, shrugging off the attacks of the zombies like a blazing colossus. Sage stayed to the rear of the mob, driving the monsters into Victor, who dispatched them with extreme prejudice. It was not until they had broken the mobs numbers down to barely a dozen that Sage noticed one zombie had a large box fused to his back. The square metal instrument looked rather out of place on the back of such a creature, with all its dials and intricate design. Then a frightening realization came to her as she remembered a diagram she had once seen while working with the Kings Row bomb squad. The creature was pressing its way toward Victor and had nearly reached him before Sage had the chance to shout a warning to her husband.

"Victor, it's got a bomb!" She screamed as she passed her realization on to him through their mental connection. A look of both fear and rage passed over Victor's face as his focus settled on the suicidal zombie. The monster had made it to within arms reach of Victor and stopped suddenly as its whole body began to tremble with anticipation.

Victor snatched the monster up by the throat, breaking its concentration for a second. "Nice try, you filthy little gutter rat." With that he picked the creature up off its feet and hurled it with all of his strength down the tunnel. Before the zombie even hit the ground Victor had turned and leapt toward his wife, snatching her out of mid air and landing several yards away from what was left of the zombie mob, holding Sage in his silhouette. No sooner had his feet hit the ground than a deafening explosion erupted behind him and a scalding wave of heat swept over his back. His knees nearly buckled form the blast of the explosion and he could feel his already seared skin crack under the force of the blow. But he stood his ground for that brief and terrible moment.

As abruptly as the blast came it disappeared, leaving the world in a surreal silence. Victor slowly opened his eyes and tried to focus through the blur of pain as he looked down at his wife. Her cloths had been tattered and torn from the explosion and a slight trail of blood was trickling from her ears but other than that she was unharmed.

Sage looked up at him and nodded. _Well done, but there is more to do. There are more dangers ahead. _

"Bring it on." Victor growled in a low raspy voice and then promptly collapsed to the ground from exhaustion and pain. His vision went black and he began to slip into unconsciousness but his wife's voice held him to his painful awareness.

_Not yet! _She commanded him firmly. _Now is not the time for rest! _With that Sage knelt next to her husband and let the glow of her psychic aura surrounded his battered and scorched body.

The seconds seemed interminable to Victor as he struggled to suppress his pain and utter fatigue but slowly, very slowly it all began to become more bearable as Sage's power washed away his injuries. After what seemed like hours, but had actually only been a few minutes, Victor had the strength to open his eyes and begin to stand.

"Bring it on." He muttered again.

The blast reached the Doctor's lair with enough strength to knock the dust form the cavernous walls and rattle the many beakers and vials that he had arranged in his "operating room", which was nothing more than a quartered off portion of a connecting tunnel. A grin slid across the wiry mans face once the blast had subsided and he strolled out into the cavernous room where Bloodlust was standing, still staring down the tunnel where the blast had come from.

"What did I tell you my esteemed colleague?" The Doctor said as he approached the larger man. "My creatures may not be the brightest things but they know how to kill. That blast marks the end of our troubles from those parents." The Doctor was looking very pleased with himself as he spoke so surely of his victory.

Bloodlust slowly turned to face the suddenly chipper doctor, a look as cold as death etched on his face as he did so. "My good Doctor, if you value your life than you had best amass what forces you can and do it quickly. You do not have much time."

"What do you mean?" The Doctor spat defiantly. "There is no way they could have survived that explosion."

"Doctor I tell you your minions are dead and those responsible will be here within minutes. Do with that knowledge what you will but rest assured I will live to see another day, you on the other hand may not be so lucky."

"We shall see about that." The Doctor said in an unshaken tone and then stormed back off to his operating room. After he had entered the tunnel and was out of Bloodlust's sight a mild look of concern spread across his pail face. He looked tentatively over at the forms of two young boys that were lying unconscious on two battered operating tables. Dozens of tubes were attached to their bodies pumping a dark green fluid into their young veins.

"These brats will not be the ruin of me." He muttered to himself, and then moved quickly to the back of the operating area where the tunnel continued deeper into the sewer system. There past the white curtains that quartered off his make shift laboratory were well over twenty more zombies. "There are intruders that will be coming into the next room!" He shouted to the mob. "Kill them."

The gang of dysfunctional entities jumped at their master's command and began meandering toward the conjunction room, knocking over medical equipment and crashing vials as they went. The Doctor grimaced as he heard them unwittingly destroying thousands of dollars worth of equipment in their attempt to move less than twenty feet.

"Not you." The Doctor said to a particularly huge zombie. The beast was nearly twelve feet tall and while he was still made in the general shape of a person there was nothing human about its look. It had no fingers, just a set of massive metal claws grafted into the nubs that should have been his hands. "I have a special purpose for you."

Victor and Sage burst into the conjunction room and flew full force into the horde of zombies that were waiting for them. Victor knocked three of the brutes over as he slammed into their ranks and once he had fought his way to the center of the horde let loose his flames in full force, scorching the beasts as they threw themselves recklessly on him. Sage stayed focused on keeping her husband's strength up and healing any wounds he sustained with her abilities rather than actually fighting. This mob was much smaller than the one that they had fought back in the tunnels and something told her that they would both need there strength up when this fight was over.

Despite the relative ease with which they were winning this fight, Victor still fought like a mad man. The sound of his fists hitting the bodies of the monsters was almost deafening; his powerful blows sent bodies, or at least parts of them, flying around the cavernous room and smashing into the walls and ceiling. The heat of his flames could be felt in every corner of the room but to those foolish enough to come within arms reach the temperature was so intense that there skin would instantly blister and seer. Even the brutish zombies could not withstand his flames for long before their limbs were burnt beyond use or repair.

The twenty zombies could have been a hundred; none of the horrible creatures could get close to the blazing mutant long enough to land a blow strong enough to do any serious harm to him and with his wife channeling her psychic powers through him, filling his body with almost unlimited stamina, there was no stopping Victor.

Finally, when the gut turning smell of scorched flesh permeated the air and a murky haze of smoke was rising off of the burnt corpses that littered the room, the zombie horde was completely crushed and Victor and Sage heard the most unexpected noise of all. Someone was clapping.

As the smoke began to settle the form of a man could be seen standing in front of the entrance to yet another tunnel. Sage focused her mind on the man, disturbed that she had not noticed him before; what she found was even more disturbing. The man was like a black hole to her, a void in the fabric of the psychic plane and the trail that led to her boys vanished when it reached him.

"Well done." The man said in a melancholy tone when he was done applauding. "Allow me to introduce myself. You may call me Bloodlust."

"I'll call you a sizzling puss stain on the floor if you don't get out of my way." Victor growled.

_Be careful, He is more than he seems. _Sage warned her husband.

"How true." Bloodlust replied to Sage and both of the mutants looked in shock at the man that had violated their mental link. "Yes, I can hear your thoughts." Bloodlust said coldly. "Considering the list of my sins, to invade the privacy of ones mind is hardly something worth apologizing for. However; for the theft of your children I do apologize. It is unfortunately necessary that I keep them for a while longer." He spoke as evenly as if he were giving a math lesson.

"Like hell." Victor said as he erupted into flames. "My children or your life."

"That Mr. Essans is the dilemma. I need your children in order to live or more specifically I need there blood in order to live, so I must choose your children."

Victor felt like a bomb shell had hit him as doubts leapt into his mind. Who was this man that knew everything from his name to his sons' blood? Only one question truly mattered and Sage voiced it before he could speak. "What have you done to our boys?" She screamed.

"Unfortunately I can not explain my motives to you Mrs. Essans. If I did I would then be compelled to kill you rather than allow my plans to become common knowledge and I was hoping to avoid both." Bloodlust said as he turned his gaze upon Sage.

"You sonofa bitch, give me back my boys!" Victor roared as he leapt at Bloodlust and struck out at the man with all of his strength. Bloodlust moved with inhuman speed as he pulled a short but broad black sword from his jacket and turned the blade flat against Victor's blow, using it like a shield. The sound of Victor's fist connecting with the unnatural steel blade was deafening; the ground beneath Bloodlust's feet cracked and cratered but the he did not even flinch at the blow.

With blinding speed and incredible strength Bloodlust turned his sword and thrust the blade into Victor's abdomen. The mutant's protective energy was powerful enough to keep the blade from piercing him but the blow was still powerful enough to knock Victor back several yards. He landed on his feet and slid a little further but recovered quickly and hurled himself at his opponent once again.

"Sage, get the boys!" Victor yelled as threw blow after blow at Bloodlust, who either deftly dodged the attacks or blocked them with his broad sword.

Sage stared at her husband with concern for a moment and then obeyed, passing out of the room and into the tunnel that Bloodlust had been blocking, in search of her sons.


	6. Chapter 6

Shadows of a Flame

by Myths n' Wraiths

Chapter Six

The rumor of the two men's battle was like rolling thunder across a wind swept sea. The air made the noise of a raging freight train as it was sucked through the sewer pipes and into the conjunction room where it was consumed by Victor's flames. The precaution of their blows could have been mistaken for a wrecking ball colliding with marble, if such things happened underground.

Holding a slight advantage in strength, Victor pushed his opponent hard early on in the fight but it soon became painfully obvious that Bloodlust was far more experienced in combat. After only a few moments he seemed to be inside Victor's head, anticipating his moves and countering them as quick as they could be made.

Bloodlust waded through Victor's flames as if they were nothing but a summer's breeze and dealt a series of quick blows with the edge of his short black sword. Victor took most of the blows but managed to block the last one and retaliated with a quick jab to Bloodlust's face. When he tried to follow up with another punch bloodlust had already recovered and, dodging the attack, dealt a powerful blow to Victor's mid section. Victor threw another punch and again Bloodlust dodged it and dealt a powerful counter attack.

Victor let out a primal roar after the second blow, as rage coursed through his veins. Bloodlust mistook this for a sign of frustration and stepped to the side to deliver yet another blow. Victor was neither frustrated nor distracted however; and seeing his opponents move swung his massive arm in a wide arch with all of his brute force behind it.

The blow landed on Bloodlust's side and knocked him off balance for a brief moment. It was all the time Victor needed to plant a powerful haymaker on Bloodlust's skull and send him flying across the room and crashing into the wall with enough force to put a small crater in the aged stone.

Bloodlust fell from the wall and landed on his feet, taking only half a second to shake off the daze of the attack. His eyes flashed a crimson red as he looked up at Victor and with incredible speed he came up off his feet and hurled himself at his victim.

The attack came with such surreal speed that Victor's eyes could not even focus on the blade as it came down across his chest. A stinging pain shocked his senses as he was in turn sent crashing into the sewer wall. He fell to his knees, and seeing that Bloodlust was content to keep his distance for a moment, took his time as he slowly stood up clasping his chest in one hand. To Victor's surprise, when he removed his hand from his chest it was covered in blood. His protective energy was potent enough to ward off small arms fire and even small explosions yet this man, if he was truly a man, had managed to pierce it with a sword.

Bloodlust took a moment to wipe his aching jaw, where Victor's punch had landed, and was equally surprised to see his own blood. A crimson trail was coming from a mouth full of loosened teeth and leaking down his jaw. The impassive persona that he constantly emanated now began to crack under the weight of the rage he felt at seeing his own blood.

Both men stared at their own blood in disbelief for a moment then, in unison, fixed each on each other with feral eyes. Letting out primal battle cries, they charged with wild abandonment. Victor dove head first toward his opponent and was about to spear him to the ground when the desperate scream of a woman ripped the air around him and stole his focus.

Bloodlust took full advantage of the momentary distraction and drove the hilt of his sword down into Victor's head, knocking the heavy mutant to his knees. Then he brought his knee up into Victor's unguarded face with enough force to send him crashing back into the crumbling sewer wall.

Dazed from the brutal assault, it was all Victor could do to even role over onto his back. He clasped the back of his head with both hands as he tried to shrug off the mind numbing pain that had taken over his senses, but it was no use. Victor could only lay there, at the mercy of his attacker, as he struggled weekly to regain himself.

_We need you. _A voice spoke to him, cutting through the fog of pain and confusion and suddenly all of the pain, confusion and fatigue disappeared. Victor's eyes snapped into focus just in time to see a blade being thrust toward his throat and with a renewed strength and speed he clapped his hands down on the sides of the blade with enough force to stop it cold, only millimeters from his neck.

A confused look flashed across Bloodlust's face as he stared down in shock at his victim. Before Bloodlust could reason out why this mutant had recovered from such an assault so quickly however; Victor twisted his hands so suddenly and with such force that the blade he held in his grasp snapped at the hilt and shattered into crystalline shards in his hands.

Bloodlust's eyes widened in disbelief and he stared down at the broken hilt of his sword as if his very soul had been shattered before his eyes. His gaping eyes followed the shards as they fell to the ground, each one of the slender splinters clattering on the filth ridden stone as if it weighed half a dozen pounds. He never even saw the upper-cut coming.

The blow connected with such force that it echoed through the chamber like a cannon shot and Bloodlust was sent crashing into the ceiling so hard he collapsed the support system and loosened over a ton of cement and stone. Victor leapt clear just as Bloodlust, along with almost half of the conjunction rooms ceiling, came crashing down to the floor, giving birth to a cloud of dust that quickly enveloped the massive room.

A long, blind, silent moment followed the collapse of the ceiling and Bloodlust's impromptu burial. Then, on one side of the conjunction room, a brilliant flame erupted and began to consume all of the air in the area. A heavy breeze was sucked through the sewer system and entered the conjunction room like a light gale, blowing away the dust that had been tossed up by the cave-in.

When the air was clear enough to see across the room, Victor extinguished his flame and looked about franticly for his wife. He had heard her call for help and felt her revive him from his injuries, just in time to beat Bloodlust but her last words to him brought a sense of both hope and dread to his heart. "We need you." That could only mean that she had found their sons. But what final danger had they encountered?

Victor scanned the room, trying to get his bearings as he searched for the tunnel that Sage had gone down. He noticed it off to the side of the large room and leapt toward it. When he landed in the entrance to the large pipeline her nearly stumbled over what, in the dim light of the sewers, looked to be a large obstruction on the ground. He stepped over it without a second thought and began to move deeper into the tunnel.

The area looked like it had recently been set up as a field hospital and even more recently destroyed; there were mangled hospital tables scattered around with operating equipment and dozens of broken vials and medicine bottles. White curtains hung loosely from bars on the ceiling, partitioning off sections of the area. Victor quickly began casting the curtains aside, searching for his wife and children. When he came to the last quartered off section without finding any trace of his family Victor was getting frantic. He cast the last curtain open and nearly yelled in startled surprise as a massive gnarled arm came swinging down toward his head, missing by only inches.

Jumping clear of any follow up attack, Victor ignited his protective, flaming aura and readied himself for yet another fight. But the huge arm made no further attempt to attack the blazing mutant and the monster it belonged to made no attempt to move toward him, or away for that matter. In the new light that his flames cast across the massive deformed creature Victor could make out the reason that the beast was not, or rather could not move. Its chest was peppered with over a dozen syringes that had been emptied into its system and while that would probably have been enough to knock almost anything out, the real impediment to this creature's health was the two inch metal piping that was protruding from its upper chest.

Deciding to squelch whatever life was left in this abomination Victor began to focus his energies for a powerful blow. Before he could strike however, a faint moan came from back towards the entrance of the tunnel and stole Victor's attention away. He quickly made his way back toward the entrance and with his flames casting the pipeline in a new light he noticed with both dread and relief that the obstruction on the floor that he had mistaken for rubble was actually a body.

"No." Victor muttered as he recognized his wife's form on the sewer floor. He ran up to her, letting his flames die just before taking her unmoving body up in his arms. As he did so he saw that she had been cradling two smaller forms under her body. Victor gasped as he looked down at his two sons. They, like their mother, were unconscious and despite the fact that Victor could see no serious injuries on them, they were covered in a dark black blood.

"NO!" Victor screamed as he looked back at his wife's form hesitatingly. The gashes in her abdomen were horrific. "Sage!" He called to her desperately and to his immense relief her eyes fluttered open weakly. "Sage, hang on. You hear me? I'm going to get you out of here. You just have to show me the way. Show me how to get you out of here."

Slowly, in response to his plea, Sage looked at him and gasped weekly for air. "We found them." Her voice was a faint whisper. She coughed and a slight trail of blood formed at her lips and ran down her chin. "They are going to be alright."

"You have to show me how to get out of here Sage." Victor pleaded with her as he grabbed a patch of white linen that had been on one of the hospital beds and began to use it as a pressure dressing on her wounded stomach. "You're going to be just fine but you have to get us out of here so I can get you to a hospital." Sage nodded lightly in response, as if she were only partially aware of what Victor was trying to say to her. She reached up and touched her husbands head with a trembling hand and began to lead his mind down unfamiliar tunnels and pipes. The way she was showing him was not the way they had come in but it seemed shorter. Victor guessed that she had taken the rout form one of the many minds she had torn apart in the past couple of hours.

Regardless of the information's origin Victor knew that if he did not get his wife out of these sewers soon she would die. The mutant caught up the small frames of his twin eight-year-old sons in one massive arm and then gently collected his wounded wife in the other and with all the speed and strength he could muster he readied himself for the long run out of the sewers. Just before he made it out of the conjunction room however; the sound of rocks shifting caught his attention and he turned to look back into the ruined room. To his surprise, there in the center of the room, where Bloodlust had been buried in a pile of cement and stone, the debris began to shift. Victor paused just long enough to see one of the larger cement blocks get pushed off the pile from underneath, and then he tore off down the tunnel system.

The desperate father and husband found himself running blindly, at break neck speed down the tunnel system as he carefully glanced left and right every so often to make sure he had not missed a turn. Time seemed to be dragging by interminably and Victor's desperation grew as he felt his wife's vitality slipping out of her as she hung limply in his arm.

"Keep calm, Victor." He muttered to himself as he tried to stave off panics icy grip. "Focus on getting out of here." But it was no use. His frustration grew as the tunnel system stretched out like a seemingly endless obstacle before him.

"Stay with me Sage." Victor yelled to his wife in an attempt to draw some sign of life out of her, to give himself some sense of hope that he was not running in vain. No response came however and Victors panic grew.

After what seemed an hour to the wearied mutant, when his desperation and fatigue were shouting at him to release his last semblance of hope, he caught site of a small glimmer of light in the tunnel ahead. Redoubling his pace Victor sprinted forward until he could see quite clearly a metal grate blocking an exit to a small lake. Victor's pace never slowed; he collided with the massive steel grate and sent it sailing forty feet into the distance as he leapt out of the insufferable darkness and stench of the sewers and into sunlight once again.

Victor landed waist deep in clear, cool, flowing water causing quite a splash. The sudden combination of light and cold water on their bodies startled all of Victor's family out of their stupor at once. Sage gave a sudden gasp as the cold refreshing liquid snatched her senses form the verge of death and brought her back to consciousness, while their two young sons groggily opened their identical dark brown eyes and blinked at the blinding sunlight that they were suddenly immersed in.

Relief swept over Victor as he stared down at his suddenly revitalized wife and children. He could barely contain himself as he waded over to the shore of the wide but shallow stream that he had landed in. Once there he gently laid his boys down on the green grass of the water's bank. When he went to lay Sage down however, a gush of dark black blood erupted from her abdominal wound and she let out a cry of pain.

Victor cursed as he tried to press the bloodied rag back over her gaping wound and stop the bleeding once again but this time it was no use. "Hang in there Sage. Were out now, I'm going to get you to a doctor." He cried as he went to pick her up again. He was stopped short though when Sage weakly placed a hand against his chest to hold him off.

"N-no." She sighed faintly. "It's too late."

"No its not." Victor's voice roared and quaked at the same time.

Sage nodded weakly. "We saved them." She said as a smile etched its way across her bloodied lips and she looked over at her two sons, who were slowly regaining their vision and were staring in horror at their bleeding mother. Sage's eyes turned slowly from her boys to look at her husband. "We... saved... them." The smile never faded from her face as her eyes slid shut and her body fell limp.

Victor stared down at her, waiting for her to open her eyes once again; waiting for her to say something more. He barely noticed that his body had begun to tremble or that his boys had begun to call his name. He simply stared at his wife's battered face in utter denial.

"No." he finally whispered. As a horrific ache began to well up inside his chest and he found himself having to gasp just to breath. "No." he said again as he shook his head and pulled his wife's lifeless body close to him, gently rocking her in his huge arms. "NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" He screamed so loud that the two young twins covered their ears and shrunk away from their father. He looked at them and his face was a twisted mask of unbearable pain and unimaginable rage.

The two young boys stared back at their father, blinking away the tears that were now streaming down their cheeks. Victor however, was beyond comforting them. He slowly stood up over his wife's lifeless form, his rage welling up over his sorrow and filling his mind till it burst out in an intelligible scream. He shot one last glance at his wife's body then turned and launched himself back into the sewer tunnel, screaming as he went. "I'LL KILL HIM. THAT SONOF BITCH I'LL KILL HIM."

The two young boys watched in disbelief as their father disappeared into the dark of the tunnel, leaving them alone with their mother's dead body in the middle of unfamiliar surroundings. They stared back at the sewer tunnel entrance, listening to their father's yells as they came echoing out of the massive pipes. Slowly the sounds faded as the crazed mutant moved deeper into the sewer system but still the boys looked back at the gaping entrance, waiting, hoping that their father would return. He never did. The sun left its position, high above them, and sunk behind the tree covered horizon and still their father did not return.

Alone with their fears and bewilderment the two boys did the only thing they could do; they cried.


	7. Chapter 7

Shadows of a Flame by Myths n' Wraiths Conclusion

Saundra absent mindedly wiped a tear from her cheek as she sat in the formal leather couch outside of the Mayor's office. It had been two weeks since the Blood Hound gang had come within a stones throw of inciting a zone wide riot in King's Row; two weeks since a patrol in Perez Park had found Elizabeth Essan's body being watched over by two borderline comatose children; two weeks since Victor himself had gone missing, lost in the sewers of Paragon, but still she was having trouble dealing with the tragedy of the whole thing. It had been the most emotionally trying time of her life and it was all compounded by the fact that she still had no idea why any of it had happened.

If she was not under enough stress already, she was facing a conduct review board in three days. Since she was the officer in charge of stemming gang crime and all Hell had broken loose on her watch some very powerful people were looking to see someone burn for it and she was the most likely person. She would have to stand in front of six of her peers and explain her actions or inactions in relation to the terrorist activities that had nearly sent King's Row into a wide spread riot and she had no idea what she would tell them.

Well its time to get some answers. She thought to herself as a grim determination spread across her face. Moments later the large double doors that lead to the Mayor's office opened slightly and her supervisor, Darek Haskin, stuck his head out.

"Their ready for you Saundra." He said as he waved her in. Saundra quickly got on her feet and followed Darek into the large office that was decorated in a dark wood, rustic look. Behind a large desk, in a comfortable leather chair sat the Mayor of Paragon with his hands folded across his barrel sized stomach. Across from the Mayor sat two older men, each attired in buisness suits and crowned with gray hair. One of the men was Walter Williams, the foremost psychiatrist that worked for the city since Elizabeth had passed away. Saundra did not recognize the other man sitting across from the mayor or the younger, darker figure that she noticed was sitting back in the corner. This nondescript man was dressed in less formal attire and even though there was a lit lamp sitting next to him on a small table, the shadows in the corner around him seemed overly pervasive.

All of the men rose courteously when Saundra came into the room and Walter, in his typical gentleman manner, offered Saundra his chair. "Saundra, good to see you again." The Mayor said as he offered her his hand, which she shook politely. "You know Walter of course but let me introduce you to Christopher Johnson," The Mayor continued as he motioned to the other man in the suit that had been sitting next to Walter. "And his associate Night's Wind." He said, referring to the dark figure in the corner that had already returned to his seat.

"A meta-human I presume." Saundra said with a slight hint of surprise.

"A mutant to be precise." Christopher interjected with a polite smile. "We both are. My associate and I work for an agency that has a vested interest in what has transpired over the past couple of weeks but perhaps I should let his honor, the Mayor, explain."

"Thank you Chris." The mayor began as he took his seat and the rest of the room followed suit. "Let me start by saying that I have already spoken to the board members on your upcoming conduct review. I told them that despite the chaos and travesty two weeks ago, I have personally looked into your conduct and I am nothing but pleased." The Mayor said with a broad smile as he leaned back in his seat. "Your quick reaction to the situation saved hundreds of lives Saundra and I am damn proud of you."

"Thank you Mr. Mayor." Saundra replied politely. I wish I could say the same thing. She thought to herself.

"I also understand that your investigation into the cause of the riots has stalled." The Mayor commented.

Saundra quickly shifted into defensive mode. "Mr. Mayor, in defense of my team, they have been working around the clock to..." The Mayor silenced her with a raised hand.

"Relax Saundra; this is not a reaming session." He said with a slight chuckle. "I have no doubt that you and your people have done everything possible to connect the dots for us but I think that after we all hear what Christopher has to say we will have a better idea of what really happened. Chris and Night's Wind work for an agency that specializes in tracking and containing mutant threats." The Mayor said as he turned the floor over to the elderly gentleman.

"You put it so politely Mr. Mayor." Christopher Johnson said as he turned in his seat to face Saundra more directly. "We are, as the Mayor stated, a policing agency for mutants. We track down those of our kind that choose to miss use their gifts and if possible rehabilitate them."

"And if that is not possible?" Saundra interjected.

"We are not an execution squad if that is what you mean. We do everything within our power to contain legitimate mutant threats, while extending them the full protection of the law that every other citizen enjoys." Johnson responded cordially.

"So what does this have to do with a gang uprising?" Saundra questioned pointedly.

"Have you, in your investigations, put a name to the leader of the Blood Hounds?" Johnson responded with another question.

"Yes, we believe that the man that reorganized the gang went by the name of Bloodlust."

"That is correct." Johnson said with a note of surprise. "I am impressed; this particular villain is notorious for covering his tracks. The fact that you were even able to get his name is a tribute to your investigative skill."

"I do my best," Saundra said, blowing off the compliment. "Are you saying that Bloodlust is actually a mutant?"

"That is exactly what I am saying. His real name is Darious Grieven; he was born around 1100 A.D. somewhere in southern Europe with a very rare mutation..."

"That grants him immortality?" Saundra said as more of a statement than a question.

"In a form; Grieven does have a virtually endless life span but as always there is a catch to his gift. His body, while it has barely aged since his powers manifested themselves in his late teens, has a deficiency that causes his blood cells to deteriorate at an accelerated rate. If he does not replenish the blood in his body every few weeks he will weaken considerably and eventually go into a coma from which he would never awaken."

"Are you talking about a vampire?" Saundra asked with a note of doubt in her voice.

"Is that so hard to believe?" Night's Wind spoke up for the first time since Saundra entered the room with a voice so deep and gravely that it barely sounded human. "You have seen the unique traits that mutants poses first hand in your interactions with Nathaniel and Elizabeth Essan." The dark figure continued. Saundra started at the reproach and the mention of her missing friend but gave no response.

"There are many creatures that fall into the classic vampire stereo-type." Christopher broke in again stealing Saundra's mind away from the thoughts of her late co-worker. "He is not the only mutant to have this type of ability. We have even developed treatments that can contain their condition; unfortunately, since the treatments are sedatatary in nature, they seriously impair the patients other abilities and reduce them to an average human."

"Is that such a bad thing?" Saundra asked spitefully?

"Not if that is what you were born to be." Night's Wind retorted.

"Perhaps we should move on to the part that applies to our current situation." The Mayor spoke up wanting to cut the animosity that was clearly building between Saundra and Night's Wind.

"Of course," Johnson responded. "Grieven has, over the centuries, performed atrocities that I can not begin to get into at the moment but needles to say it was enough to draw the attention of my agency and put him on our most wanted list. He was at that point caught between a rock and a hard place, as the expression goes. He had no interest in being captured and sedated of course but his unique feeding needs were our only way of tracking him wherever he went. As you might suspect, when a body turns up having been drained of all its blood it tends to get a little noteriety. So as any creature of intelligence would do, he tried adapting his needs."

"Grieven began searching for alternate forms of treatment that were less likely to draw our attention but the effects were less than desirable in his opinion, until, while raiding a local blood bank, he came across a blood sample of our very own Elizabeth Essan; the woman better known to us all as Sage." Johnson shifted in his chair and a look of sudden remembrance flashed across his aged face.

"I should mention that in addition to Sage's work with your police forces; she has also done a great deal of work for our own agency. Her empathic and psychic abilities have helped us apprehend more villains in the past two years than we have in the twenty years prior to that. It was that empathic ability that drew Grieven's attention to her family. He discovered that the genetics in her blood sample contained enough regenerative ability to sustain him for months. He used that time to set a plan into motion that would both supply him with a substantial amount of blood containing the same regenerative ability and a means to fuse it into his own body so that it would become self sustaining. He used his abilities to steal information on the Essans and coordinate an elaborate smoke screen that involved leaving King's Row in ruin and Paragon crippled."

"So you're telling me that you knew this mutant was working in our city and you didn't think to inform us." Saundra said as her face reddened slightly and she sat forward in her chair.

"Now is not the time for finger pointing Saundra." The Mayor spoke up trying to leash Saundra before she made it out of her chair. "The review board will do more than its fair share of that in a few days so let's focus on the business at hand."

"Yes," Johnson agreed as he tried to gain control of the conversation once again. "As I was saying, Grieven needed to obtain a larger amount of blood with the same regenerative qualities in order to accomplish a successful transfusion."

Suddenly Saundra remembered what the Crime Scene Investigator had told her about how he found Sage's body. He had said that there were blood marks consistent with a major abdominal wound but he could not find the wound itself, or any other injury for that matter. It later became apparent that the twin boys, that were found in complete shock by their mother's body, had had their powers awoken by the trauma of the situation and had tried to heal their mother after she had died. They had managed to regenerate all of her physical injuries but not until she had been dead for some time.

"Their children had the same abilities; he kidnapped her children to extract their blood." Saundra said in disgust. Johnson nodded sharing her distaste for the subject.

"It was not the trauma that awoke the boy's abilities, as your doctor presumed however; they were pumped with a genetic accelerant that forced their abilities out of dormancy. Grieven found a third party, that we have as yet not been able to identify, who apparently had the expertise to administer the accelerant and perform the transfusion. Victor and Sage must have arrived just in time to stop the operation and save their boy's lives," At that point Johnson paused solemnly. "Though it cost them theirs."

"We don't know for sure that Victor is dead." Saundra countered

"Saundra, there is no way that anyone could survive in the sewers for two weeks." Darek spoke calmingly.

Forcing herself to take her mind off of the subject Saundra spoke up. "So the entire Blood Hound riot, the phone center bombing, everything was a distraction so that he could kidnap two children?"

"It is how Grieven works. Please believe me when I say that this mutant is an Arch-Villain in the most classic sense of the term. He has played a hand in the toppling of countless city's and even entire civilizations over the centuries. The destruction of one neighborhood is child's play to him." Christopher responded in a most dead serious tone.

A long silence followed Christopher's monologue as the weight of his tale settled in. "All of that, done by one person." Darek said as he shook his head in astonishment.

"This leaves just one question." Saundra said in stern tone.

"And what would that be my dear?" Johnson asked.

"Where is Grieven now and how to I take him down?" Her jaw was as set as stone as she spoke.

"That is something we are going to leave up to Christopher and his people Saundra." The Mayor interjected.

"But sir," Saundra said, almost coming out of her seat.

"No buts. I know what this means you but our police forces have too much on their hands right now to be chasing this Bloodlust character down." The Mayor could see his words were having little or no affect on Saundra but he persisted anyway. "Our responsibility is to this city Saundra, not to vendettas. And I don't need to explain how badly this city needs every last one of it's finest focused on rebuilding." Saundra glared at the floor for a moment before nodding her head bitterly. "Now I imagine that Christopher will show a little interagency courtesy and keep us posted on his investigation, especially as long as it is taking place inside our city." The Mayor said as he turned to give Christopher a mild glare.

"Of course Mr. Mayor." Christopher responded with his unshakably polite smile.

"Now for our final order of business." The Mayor continued. "After hearing Christopher's and Walter's opinion on the matter I am willing to back their decision to turn over custody of the Essan boys to Christopher and his agency."

"What?" Saundra gasped as she shot forward in her chair once agian.

"Saundra please." Walter spoke in a soothing, fatherly voice as he placed a calming hand on her shoulder. "I spent two solid days with those boys and could not get a single word out of them. In fact after those two days I could not even go near them. Their abilities are out of control, by no fault of their own, but after two days they had worn down my mental resistance so badly that my own emotions were being dictated by their mood swings. On top of that, after two days I was not even able to determine which boy was which. Their medical records were stolen from the hospital and with them unwilling or unable to speak to me I can't even tell who is who."

"Christopher on the other hand was able to calm them and actually begin speaking to and treating them within an hour. After watching them interact over the course of the past week I am very confident in Christopher's ability to take care of the children."

"So we are turning the entire thing over to an agency that could not handle its own in the first place; villain, victims and all." Saundra spat bitterly as she stood up and fixed Christopher and Night's Wind with a withering stare. "I hope for all of our sakes that you guys get a half as good a grip on what you are as Victor and Sage had. You don't deserve to avenge their deaths and you sure as Hell don't deserve to have their kids." With that Saundra spun on her heals and made for the door.

"Saundra!" Darek called after her but she had already made it through the door and let the heavy oak slam shut behind her.

"It's ok Darek." The Mayor said as he waved for Darek to return to his seat. "Give her some time. She's been through a Hell of allot over the past couple weeks... we all have."

Darek did catch up with Saundra later that evening. He found her standing in a dim hallway at Walter's personal care facility, staring through the window side of a one way mirror into an observation room. He didn't need to look over her shoulder to know that she was looking in on two young boys. He approached her quietly, not wanting to disturb her but while he was still several feet away she shot him a tired sideways glance and wiped a tear from her eye.

"Walter was right. I'm standing out here and still I can feel their powers overwhelming my emotions. Their fear is so confused, so unsure." She said as she tried to hold back her tears.

"Are you sure it's their emotions you feel?" Darek asked gently as he walked up and placed a comforting arm around her shoulder.

"What's going to happen to them when we turn them over to that agency Darek?" She asked as she watched the two identical young boys coloring haphazardly on the floor of the observation room.

"I don't know Saundra, but I do know that there is nothing you or I could do for them. Most mutants don't get their powers until adolescence but these guys are only eight. I mean you say that you can feel the backwash of their power standing out here so just imagine what they could do if they grew up without someone to train them on how to use those powers. By the time their twelve they could send an average person into a deadly fit of depression with a single thought. Sorry girl but their aint nothing we can do for these kids; except maybe to hope for the best." Darek said with a heavy sigh. "At least Christopher can keep them safe until they capture Bloodlust." He added in an attempt to pick out the silver lining in a sky full of clouds.

"No," Saundra said as she shook her head wearily. "They haven't been able to catch him in all these years, what makes you think they will ever be able to."

"I don't know; who better to catch a mutant then another mutant?" Darek said dejectedly. Saundra pondered his words for a moment then, as if she was filled with a new strength, she straitened herself and shrugged Darek's arm off of her shoulder.

"Would you send a cat to hunt cat?" Saundra asked pointedly.

"What?"

"You don't use a cat to hunt another cat, you use a dog. So why would you use a mutant to hunt a mutant. Why not find something that is a little more suited to for the job." With that Saundra turned and began to walk away.

"Saundra, where are you going?" Darek called after her in confusion.

"One day, years from now, those boys are going to want vengeance for their parent's death and I'll be damned if after all of those years I won't be ready and waiting to help them." 


End file.
